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SAVANNAH, Georgia – A piece of Revolutionary War history that spent more than two centuries hidden underwater is now on display in Georgia’s oldest city, just in time for America’s 250th birthday.
Nineteen cannons discovered at the bottom of the Savannah River were unveiled Thursday as part of a new exhibit at the Savannah History Museum. The canyons spent almost 240 years underwater.
“This is the largest discovery of 18th-century artillery in a single Revolutionary War naval event,” said Nora Fleming Lee, executive director of the Coastal Heritage Society. “So the discovery is really significant nationally, not just for Savannah.”
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crew encountered the canyons in 2021 while dredging the river to make room for larger cargo ships.
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Seventeen Revolutionary War cannons were restored and displayed at the Savannah History Museum. (Amy Galo)
“In total, they took out 19 cannons and about a dozen small artifacts… They had quite a bit of concretion, oyster shells, all kinds of marine life that had attached themselves to the cannon,” Fleming Lee explained.
Some of the cannons were found still filled with bullets and gunpowder charges, along with other small artifacts.
The canyons were found covered in marine life and concretion. (Amy Galo)
After being removed from the river, most of the cannons left Georgia for several years for cleaning and conservation work in a laboratory at Texas A&M University.
“Passing electrical currents essentially through a water bath that they were in, desalinates the iron works, so it stabilizes the iron so it’s grounded,” Fleming Lee said. “And then in the final treatments, they are acid painted, given a spa treatment and waxed and they can have a very long life here on land.”
Seventeen cannons were restored. The other two were left unrestored to allow visitors a side-by-side comparison.
All 19 are on permanent display as part of the new exhibit “Loyalists and Freedom: Savannah in the American Revolution.”
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Historians believe the cannons were sunk shortly before the siege of Savannah in 1779. At the time, Savannah was under British occupation.
A boat navigates the Savannah River in Savannah, Georgia. (Amy Galo)
“We believe these guns are the last of several ships that were sunk in the narrowest part of the Savannah River to act as a blockade for the French fleet and prevent them from sailing upriver and claiming Savannah for the American side,” Fleming Lee said.
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The cannons would have been sunk just weeks before the Battle of Savannah, known as one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, with more than 800 casualties in less than an hour. It was fought on the same land where the Savannah History Museum now stands.
A monument to the Battle of Savannah is located next to the Savannah History Museum. (Amy Galo)
“The cannons are really the tangible artifacts that tell the story of the revolution,” Fleming Lee said. “And through that lens, we are expanding Georgia’s revolutionary history. More about the naval events, but more importantly, we are telling the story through the lens of those we often don’t focus on.”
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The new exhibit tells the story of Savannah’s role in the birth of the United States from the perspective of five unique historical figures, including indigenous, free and enslaved peoples, women and children.